The 2018 Underwater Photographer of the Year contest brought out photographers’ wettest and wildest talents in 11 wonderfully watery categories.

Underwater Photographer of the Year 2018

This photographic panorama of British World War Two military vehicles inside a sunken vessel garnered German photographer Tobias Friedrich laurels as 2018’s Underwater Photographer of the Year. It also won him the top honor in the Wrecks category. Friedrich snapped the photograph while diving in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Ras Mohammed, Egypt. Titled “Cycle War”, the scene is centered on never-ridden (and never TO be ridden) Norton 16H motorbikes neatly packed into the hold of the SS Thistlegorm. Appropriately, perhaps, a school of soldierfish swims above the British Merchant Navy ship sunk by Luftwaffe bombers in October of 1941.

British Underwater Photographer of the Year

2018’s British Underwater Photographer of the Year is Grant Thomas, whose photograph of interacting swans was taken at Scotland’s Loch Lomond. Though Thomas titled his image “Love Birds”, any romantic interpretations are purely in the mind of the beholder. Surely the photographer was feeling anything BUT romantic as he had to sit patiently and silently, semi-submerged in the loch’s chill waters, for the majesty waterfowl to cooperate. “The swans were searching for food,” states Thomas. “I just had to wait for that perfect moment of synchronicity.”

Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year

The winner of the Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year category for 2018 is Abdul Rahman Jamaludin. Titled “ROAR”, the photographer’s image of colorful sea slugs is delightful on its own; it just need an extra push provided by a photobombing moray eel. Indeed, photographers are said to love their work but that really IS a moray.